Kenney doesn’t get to label me ‘special interest’

We are only working to conserve our forest lands,

“Activist special interest groups are trying to shut down vast areas of our province from responsible resource development,” United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney recently tweeted.

I am 63 years old and a 28-year resident of Bragg Creek. I have spent 35 years in oil and gas as a geophysicist, consultant and junior exploration and production company owner and executive.

I am a member of the Bragg Creek Chamber of Commerce, and a lifelong fly fisherman, whitewater canoeist and outdoorsman. I have a long history of voting for the Conservative party in Alberta.

Jason Kenney recently chose to label those working to conserve our forest lands and waters an “activist special interest.”

The deforestation I have witnessed in our foothills is creating a budget deficit worse than any government can come up with. We have “spent” my grandchildren’s “nature capital” much faster than it can be regenerated.

We have harmed the ability of our lands to retain water and have changed the wildlife ecosystem patterns such that my grandchildren will not catch cutthroat trout or big bulls, they will not be able to hike without traversing a cut block every few kilometres and wildlife will retreat further.

If we consider the 1.6 million people that live in the Calgary area, of whom 40 per cent rely on the Elbow River for drinking water, or the half a million visitors who come to the area to hike each year, can they all be classified as special interests by Kenney as well?

I am part of a community group hoping to exclude a few ecologically and socially important blocks from the 23 being cut by Spray Lakes Sawmills in the Elbow River headwaters. These blocks of forested hills do not represent a “vast area of the province,” especially if one considers the 50-odd additional blocks that have been cut in the Bragg Creek area in the past eight years.

I certainly do not wish to halt all timber harvests within the province. Timber is a valuable renewable resource, and wood products are fundamental to our lifestyle. However, clear-cut logging cannot proceed at current intensity without consideration for community and ecological values.

Too many community groups before us have had to speak out against similar cuts in their own backyards; forestry management is obviously not working for Albertans. We need better public input in our forest management across the province to ensure a broader suite of priorities is in place that consider our precious headwaters that will supply our grandchildren’s drinking water.

I feel that recent comments about “activist special interests” are directed at me, my friends, family and neighbours who share my values. As a businessman who has contributed more than a million dollars to this province, I am offended.

There is, however, one special interest group I will gladly admit to being part of: grandfathers who want to give their grandchildren the same clean water and life-filling fishing, hiking, camping and hunting experiences that I have had the privilege of enjoying in Alberta’s foothills.

If you wish to learn more about our efforts, visit Stand for the Upper Elbow on Facebook.